Bill passes that would help babies born addicted

A bill aiming to decrease the number of babies born dependent on opiates is heading to the president’s desk.

The bill, passed this week by the U.S. House and in October by the Senate, comes as the rate of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, essentially drug withdrawal, rose from seven cases per 1,000 admissions in 2004 to 27 cases per 1,000 admissions in 2013 nationwide, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

During that time, Ohio saw a 750 percent increase in the number of babies born with NAS. On average, there were five drug-dependent babies admitted to Ohio hospitals each day of 2013 with 87 percent of them on Medicaid, according to a report from the Ohio Department of Health.

A 2015 Government Accountability Office study found that between 2008 and 2014, there were no federally funded projects focused on the prevention or understanding of prenatal opioid use or any costs associated with use of opioids.

The Protecting Our Infants Act calls for a study to be done to develop recommendations for prevention and treatment of prenatal opioid abuse; seeks a review to close the gaps in research and programming within the Health and Human Services Department; and encourages states to improve data collection, surveillance and response.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who co-sponsored the bill, said in a news release he is hopeful the law will provided solutions to Ohio’s “troubling infant mortality problem and opioid abuse problem.”

“Too many children are exposed to dangerous opioids before they are even born. Protecting babies from this scary reality should be a top priority,” Brown said.

In 2008, Ohio began its own efforts to decrease the harm to babies born drug-dependent with the creation of the Ohio Perinatal Quality Collaborative. The collaborative created a standard evaluation and treatment protocol for treating babies with NAS that kicked off in 2013.

"Fortunately, Ohio has been out front in terms of addressing NAS for a number of years as part of our ongoing effort to mitigate the impact of opiate addiction," said Eric Wandersleben, spokesman with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

Dr. Michele Walsh, chief or neonatology at University Hospitals and clinical lead for the state perinatal collaborative, said Ohio already is seeing “notable progress.” The average hospital stay for drug-dependent babies has dropped from a 20-day peak in 2008 to just under 15 days in 2013.

“The additional resources from the passage of this bill will improve prevention strategies and treatments for both mom and baby,” Walsh said.

In 2013, Ohio also launched the Maternal Opiate Medical Support Project to identify pregnant women who are addicted to opiates and get them into treatment. The three-year pilot is supported with $4.2 million in state money for four regional projects to engage 300 pregnant women.

Preliminary data from the MOMS Project indicates that, as of November 2013, 82 percent of the pregnant mothers had adhered to their medication assisted treatment plan while 18 percent had tested positive for illicit opioids.